Ecological collapse: Polanski and 'the left' are wrong about individual responsibility

Stephen Price

Three news reports hit the headlines this week highlighting the earth’s descent into ecological collapse in no uncertain terms.

Clicks are king in the media, however, and despite their importance, few actually bother to read anything about nature or animals.

A piece about a closing down pub or an appearance on a top ten list, that’s where the clicks lie. Articles on war, extinction, the climate? A handful of readers at best.

Firstly, some seasonal 'good news' in the lifting of mandatory avian influenza housing measures across England and Wales amid “receding” threat levels, following a Defra announcement.

Defra said the latest risk assessment, epidemiological and scientific evidence shows bird flu risk levels in wild birds and poultry has reduced, although avian influenza prevention zone mandatory biosecurity measures will remain in place until the wild bird risk falls further.

Welsh CVO Richard Irvine added: “It’s important to get ready for lifting the Housing Order on 9 April, including to check and prepare ranges and outdoor areas.

“Whilst we are seeing risk levels reducing, bird flu has not gone away. Please continue to practice scrupulous hygiene and biosecurity to protect your birds.”

The second piece: the emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal were singled out among a host of countless others species which are facing the threat of extinction because of climate change, a new conservation assessment has warned.

The loss of sea ice and shrinking food availability have caused both populations to plummet in recent years, according to the latest assessment for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species.

The findings have prompted calls for urgent action to reduce planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions as well as supporting Antarctica’s role in stabilising the planet’s climate and providing refuge to unique wildlife.

Elsewhere, the southern elephant seal has moved from “least concern” to “vulnerable” on the red list following declines caused by (welcome back to the conversation) bird flu.

The disease has affected four of the five major subpopulations, killing more than 90% of newborn pups in some colonies and seriously impacting adult females.

The third story to hit the lower reaches of news sites was the warning that 'Brits' should “completely avoid” buying UK-caught cod, according to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), as it warned that populations have reached a dangerous point of decline despite zero-catch recommendations.

The MCS, a supposed environmental charity (that pushes eating sea life - make it make sense), publishes a Good Fish Guide to help consumers and businesses make sustainable seafood choices.

On Thursday it downgraded all UK-caught cod to the worst possible rating, recommending consumers choose European hake as a flaky white fish alternative.

Kerry Lyne, Good Fish Guide manager, called the downgrade a “warning signal”, and said the UK government needed to “address these concerns to allow stocks to recover”.

The Guardian shared: "Concerns about cod fishing echo those expressed over mackerel this time last year. When persistent overfishing caused by quota disagreements between the UK and its coastal neighbours depleted fish stocks, mackerel was removed from the Good Fish Guide recommended list.

"More recently, Waitrose announced that it will stop selling mackerel by 29 April, saying fishing must be kept within 'sustainable limits'"

Chris Graham, head of sustainable seafood at the MCS, said: “It’s deeply concerning seeing so many of our iconic fisheries – from cod to mackerel – under increasing pressure.”

The Guardian article continues: "The MCS has asked consumers to consider more sustainable alternatives to UK cod, such as Icelandic cod, which is abundant and not subject to overfishing. More locally, European hake is recommended as a sustainable choice, as is haddock, particularly if caught in the North Sea or west of Scotland.

"Other options for shoppers wanting to make sustainable choices include seabass or plaice from the North Sea, and UK-farmed seafood such as blue mussels and freshwater trout.

"The MCS updates its Good Fish Guide advice twice a year, depending on the latest scientific advice. In particular it looks at stock levels and plans for management."

Where to start...

Starting with the bird flu restrictions..

Avian Influenza or Avian Flu continues to spread through our captive and wild bird populations in the UK. The scale of Avian Flu outbreaks across the UK and Europe have been unprecedented with over 330 cases confirmed across the country between late October 2021 and April 2023 alone according to a UK Wildlife Trust.

And the origin? For the handful of meat eaters that will actually read this.. drum roll: poultry farms and other captive birds. The virus then spreads to our wild bird populations particularly affecting sea and wetland species.

According to PETA: "Bird flu, also known as avian flu, is a type of influenza that spreads among birds and one of numerous diseases caused by keeping animals for food. The H5N1 strain of bird flu – the outbreak of which we are now seeing around the world – originated in farmed geese before infecting chickens raised for their flesh and eggs."

Bird flu has killed millions of wild birds worldwide, including tens of thousands from 78 wild bird species in the UK. Seabirds, waterfowl, and birds of prey are most affected, including barnacle geese, swans, peregrine falcons, hen harriers, buzzards, white-tailed eagles, golden eagles, gannets, roseate terns, black-headed gulls, guillemots, kittiwakes, and herring gulls. Three-quarters of the UK’s pairs of great skua, a protected species whose main population lives in the UK, have been killed off.

PETA continue: "At least half a billion birds on farms have also been killed due to the H5 strain of avian influenza and its variants since the strain was first identified. H5N1 is especially deadly for chickens – their heads swell, they struggle to breathe, and they experience extreme diarrhoea. But it is not only a devastating pandemic for birds."

Rest assured - the restrictions will return, and our puffins and other supposed-beloved birds will reach breaking point. The writing is on the wall.

The answer? Simple. All of us, each and every one of us, addressing the root cause - the food on our plates.

The same answer lies, in part, with the global catastrophe facing our wildlife.

Study after study shows that a vegan diet can lessen your carbon footprint.

Feeding massive amounts of grain and water to farmed animals and then killing them and processing, transporting, and storing their flesh is extremely energy-intensive. And forests—which absorb greenhouse gases—are cut down in order to supply pastureland and grow crops for farmed animals. Roughly 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has been caused by cattle ranchers, who destroy the land in order to raise animals for their skin and flesh. Finally, the animals themselves and all the manure that they produce release even more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

An Oxford University study, published in the journal Climatic Change, shows that meat-eaters are responsible for almost twice as many dietary greenhouse-gas emissions per day as vegetarians and about two and a half times as many as vegans.

The U.N. says that raising animals for food is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.”

One recent study showed that a vegan diet reduced carbon emissions by 46%, water use by 7%, and land use by 33%, while the two vegetarian diets cut carbon emissions by up to 35%.

Then to the Marine Conservation Society.. How about not fishing at all?

Seriously? Why are they not promoting leaving the ocean alone?

Our oceans are being decimated - cod 'supplies' are the canary in the mine. The interdependent ecosystems around them are all failing too.

And it's not just cod that's suffering: “Up to 40% of all marine life caught gets thrown right back overboard if it’s ‘bycatch,’ and most of them die before they even hit the water,” according to Seaspiracy director Ali Tabrizi.

PETA write: "It’s simple – stop eating fish and seafood. You will save the lives of many animals and diminish the profits of a global industry that harms millions of sentient beings a day and is responsible for wrecking our environment."

The biggest source of plastic in the ocean? Fishing nets. But let's all drink with a paper straw while we eat seafood shall we..

That we're debating which fish to kill off next when we can all eat nutritious delicious vegan food right now, and minimise our land use and feed more people in the bargain is one of life's cruelest absurdities.

Where do we turn?

A while ago, on Facebook, I made the mistake of commenting below a disappointing piece from Zack Polanski titled ‘Zack Polanski: You can fly, drive, eat meat and still be green’ where the Greens leader boldly claimed that individual responsibility isn't an issue, that we’re all absolved and it’s all on the big corporate bogeyman. The onslaught of commenters (mostly Green supporting ‘lefties’) telling me they agreed with Polanski (and not my one liner about us all having a part to play) was telling.

The Greens have some good green credentials, and are better than most parties out there, but they are very silent about them at the moment. A few lines on the site and in their manifestos but these are largely overlooked and unimportant at the minute. Green but not quite. And just like important news stories, green policies don’t get the clicks.

In his appeal to the mass KFC-visiting Argentinian steak-loving populace, he said: “There is far too much focus on individual responsibility,” he said. “Shell and BP in the Seventies and Eighties knew what they were doing to the planet through their actions, so they created the idea of the carbon footprint to move the focus away from systemic change from governments and businesses and focus on individual responsibility.”

Apologetic vegan, Polanski, does not fly or drive. “I have the privilege and the time to be able to make those choices,” he told The Times. “Someone can be an environmentalist and still not be able to make those choices."

Most of us in the west are privileged. A tin of beans or lentils costs a fraction of meat. And that's even without the subsidies we're all paying in other ways.

Anyone can pick up a pack of vegan ready made sandwiches or sushi that costs the same as its secretion or flesh filled counterparts. It's 2026. It really is very easy.

The Times report from Adam Vaughan continues: "There is unease among some in his party about environmental issues being less prominent in his public comments, but Polanski rejected the idea that he was not talking about green issues."

Polanski counters: “Nothing matters more than the environment,” he said. “So it’s nonsensical to ever suggest that the Green Party doesn’t care about the environment or it’s not one of our number one priorities.

“What has changed is the way that we talk about it. If people listen to me for more than 30 seconds, the environment is there. It’s just [that] the first thing that comes out of my mouth is always about bills and cost of living.”

Sadly, however, he's not really talking about it, is he... And when he is challenged about how green his party is, this is what he has to say?

Of course, we must go for the big guys. But said big guys are often simply listening to us, the buyers.

I won't be voting Greens in the Senedd elections in May - I think they've forgotten who they are, ‘why’ they are even - and Polanski's statements on individual responsibility are ludicrous.

If I buy a steak to eat for my supper tonight, a cow - an individual with thoughts and feelings - had to die.. depending on where the poor thing was raised, a rainforest may have had to fall.

If I buy a kebab after a drinking session or chicken nuggets for my child, an animal most often had a ritualistic slaughter.

If I buy a Greggs sausage roll over a vegan sausage roll then I’ve condemned pigs to being killed in gas chambers.

If I was to get off on catapulting swans or lighting mountainsides on fire in the name of fun, the fallout is plain to see. And so on and so forth.

We, as individuals, collectively add up to millions in Wales alone.. what we do matters. And the natural world and the very few wild animals teetering on the brink also matter. A lot.

So where do we turn, if we want the world to look better for everyone and every thing on the planet?

We turn to the mirror.

Watch Seaspiracy on Netflix